How to Change Closed Captions Settings in Windows 10


Closed captions let you read the words spoken in the audio portion of a video, TV show, or movie.

Starting with Windows 10 build 21337 and later, Microsoft is making updates to the captions settings. Please note, the option to discard changes may not work as expected in this build 21337 – Microsoft is working on a fix.

This tutorial will show you how to customize how closed captions appear in Windows 10 and some Windows apps for your account.

Contents

• Option One: Change Closed Captions Settings in Settings before Windows 10 build 21337
• Option Two: Change Closed Captions Settings in Registry Editor before Windows 10 build 21337
• Option Three: Choose Caption Style in Settings for Windows 10 build 21337 and higher

OPTION ONE

Change Closed Captions Settings in Settings before Windows 10 build 21337

1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Ease of Access icon.

2 Click/tap on Closed captions on the left side, and change the caption font, caption background, and dim window content settings to what you want. (see screenshots below)

3 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.

OPTION TWO

Change Closed Captions Settings in Registry Editor before Windows 10 build 21337

1 Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type regedit into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.

2 Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ClosedCaptioning

3 Do the steps below for which closed captions settings you want to change. When finished making changes, go to step 13 below.

• Step 4 - Caption color
• Step 5 - Caption transparency
• Step 6 - Caption style
• Step 7 - Caption size
• Step 8 - Caption effects
• Step 9 - Caption background color
• Step 10 - Caption background transparency
• Step 11 - Window color
• Step 12 - Windows Transparency

 4. Change Caption Color

A) In the right pane of the ClosedCaptioning key, double click/tap on the CaptionColor DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot below step 2)

B) Type the value data from the table below for what you want, click/tap on OK, and go to step 3. (see screenshot below)

Caption Color	Value Data
Default	0
White	1
Black	2
Red	3
Green	4
Blue	5
Yellow	6
Magenta	7
Cyan	8

 5. Change Caption Transparency

A) In the right pane of the ClosedCaptioning key, double click/tap on the CaptionOpacity DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot below step 2)

B) Type the value data from the table below for what you want, click/tap on OK, and go to step 3. (see screenshot below)

Caption Transparency	Value Data
Default	0
Opaque	1
Translucent	2
Semitransparent	3
Transparent	4

 6. Change Caption Style

A) In the right pane of the ClosedCaptioning key, double click/tap on the CaptionFontStyle DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot below step 2)

B) Type the value data from the table below for what you want, click/tap on OK, and go to step 3. (see screenshot below)

Caption Style	Value Data
Default	0
Mono serif	1
Proportional serif	2
Mono sans serif	3
Proportional sans serif	4
Casual	5
Cursive	6
Small caps	7

 7. Change Caption Size

A) In the right pane of the ClosedCaptioning key, double click/tap on the CaptionSize DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot below step 2)

B) Type the value data from the table below for what you want, click/tap on OK, and go to step 3. (see screenshot below)

Caption Size	Value Data
Default	0
50%	1
100%	2
150%	3
200%	4

 8. Change Caption Effects

A) In the right pane of the ClosedCaptioning key, double click/tap on the CaptionEdgeEffect DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot below step 2)

B) Type the value data from the table below for what you want, click/tap on OK, and go to step 3. (see screenshot below)

Caption Effects	Value Data
Default	0
None	1
Raised	2
Depressed	3
Uniform	4
Drop shadow	5

 9. Change Caption Background Color

A) In the right pane of the ClosedCaptioning key, double click/tap on the BackgroundColor DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot below step 2)

B) Type the value data from the table below for what you want, click/tap on OK, and go to step 3. (see screenshot below)

Caption Background Color	Value Data
Default	0
White	1
Black	2
Red	3
Green	4
Blue	5
Yellow	6
Magenta	7
Cyan	8

 10. Change Caption Background Transparency

A) In the right pane of the ClosedCaptioning key, double click/tap on the BackgroundOpacity DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot below step 2)

B) Type the value data from the table below for what you want, click/tap on OK, and go to step 3. (see screenshot below)

Caption Background Transparency	Value Data
Default	0
Opaque	1
Translucent	2
Semitransparent	3
Transparent	4

 11. Change Window Color

A) In the right pane of the ClosedCaptioning key, double click/tap on the RegionColor DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot below step 2)

B) Type the value data from the table below for what you want, click/tap on OK, and go to step 3. (see screenshot below)

Window Color	Value Data
Default	0
White	1
Black	2
Red	3
Green	4
Blue	5
Yellow	6
Magenta	7
Cyan	8

 12. Change Window Transparency

A) In the right pane of the ClosedCaptioning key, double click/tap on the RegionOpacity DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot below step 2)

B) Type the value data from the table below for what you want, click/tap on OK, and go to step 3. (see screenshot below)

Window Transparency	Value Data
Default	0
Opaque	1
Translucent	2
Semitransparent	3
Transparent	4

13 When finished, you can close Registry Editor if you like.

OPTION THREE

Choose Caption Style in Settings for Windows 10 build 21337 and higher

1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Ease of Access icon.

Starting with Windows 10 build 21359, the Ease of Access category in Settings has been renamed to Accessibility.

2 Select a caption style you want to use in the Choose a caption style drop menu on the right side. (see screenshot below)

That's it,
Shawn